Floral Fusion - Blue Hyacinths and Anemones

In the April issue of House & Garden - the one published in the UK - I was delighted when I found an article that featured the London florist Vic Brotherson. 

I featured a floral quote by her here on my blog last Sunday - in the series that I call Florets. 

So you will already kow that she owns the charming florist shop Scarlet & Violet in Kensal Rise in North West London.

Her work and her book is inspiring and her shop is like a treasure trove full of flowers and vintage. 

Here is my version of mixing flowers and vintage treasures.

The theme I came up with after finding some blue Hyacinths and dark blue Anemone - was you've guessed it - Blue!

The lovely blue floral fabric that I have used as the base is a Liberty fabric. 

Going through mine and my daughters collections of jewellery I found lots of wonderful blue bead necklaces. Some ethnic others just M&S. 

Walking on Hampstead Heath in North London I found over the years a lot of broken china that was just laying on the paths. For a long time I wondered why that was and the explanation is that during the Second World War they filled bags with sand from the Heath and after the war they filled the holes with rubble from bomb sites. There is a bit of odd history for you!

So the broken china is from Hampstead Heath and the crystals are vintage chandelier crystals.

As you probably know by now I love vases and other odd containers. Here are three blue ones.

The very old jug has a very pretty blue and white floral pattern and underneath it still has a label saying: "Swansea, Woodbine, sheet pattern jug". I bought it many years ago at an antique fair and I still think it's so much fun to use it as a vase.

The solid blue container is a vintage French polishers jar bought last year at the Country Living Fair - it works great as a vase and I love the blue colour.

The small light blue vintage ink bottle is great for using as bud vase for just one single flower cut very short.

At the moment you see a lot of globes in interior magazines. I bought a few of them some years ago from different car-boot sales around London, for very little money. This one was made by a toy company called Chad Valley in the late 1940's and 1950's. 

The two flowers I've used are dark blue Hyacinths and very dark Anemone.

I have used odd numbers - nine Hyacinths in the jug with just a few leaves and five Anemone in the jar and obviously just one single stem in the ink bottle.

The Hyacinths are still in quite tight bud so I will be able to enjoy them for some time. 

If you use old containers like I have done her - don't put them straight on a wooden surface - old china often leaks so make sure to protect the surface. 

Thanks for stopping by and for making lovely comments.

I'll be back very soon with more floral delights!

xoxo Ingrid

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Floral Fusion - Purple and Pink

The cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine caught my eye at the newsagent. It was the March issue - I know - we are bit behind here in the UK! Anyway, I was happy to see that they had an article about flower arranging called Short and Sweet - How to Get Big Impact from Tiny Blooms.   

The feature is styled by Tanya Graff and Stephen Orr and has beautiful photographs by Kana Okada. Six delightful pages of floral beauty. Well, what it did was to inspire me to make an "Short and Sweet" arrangement. 

But my pink and purple arrangement almost didn't happen. I didn't have any pink and purple flowers at home. I had not been to the flower market and my local farmers' markets does not have a very large selection of flowers as it has been exceptionally cold and the season is much later then usual. 

The hunt for pink and purple flowers started! Let me tell you it was not easy as it was also Easter holiday weekend, a long four day holiday here in the UK. My wonderful local florist was closed, the flower stall had no flowers in the colours I needed or more to be exact wanted. 

Another florist had "nothing", nor did the next one, we were now several miles from home and my kind and patient husband was now getting fed up as he needed to make a phone call to the US. My saving grace was the Chinese green grocer across from the last "nothing" florist! 

So the flowers I got in the end was some pink and purple Ranunculus and some pink waxflowers.

Ranunculus is a favourite flower but the petals tend to mark quite easily and the stems can rot quickly. Keep the water level low in the vase to prevent rotting and handle the flowers gently. If the blooms starts to droop - cut the stems short and put in a low vase.

Waxflowers are sometimes best bought in full bloom as the buds might not open once cut. A few flowers might also drop off when handled. 

I used two purple glass vases, a medium sized and a very small bud vase. They both have a lot of interesting texture, on the big one the texture is in the glass and on the small one has a textured surface. The big one is bought in Sweden the other one was a present from my sweet daughter. 

The pretty floral fabric is called Toy Box II by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill Fabrics.

The ribbons are from Jane Means collection - purple stitched grosgrain in two widths . 

The little miniature cushion is an Art Nouveau pincushion with an embroidered silk flower on a black background.

The ethnic necklace was a present from my dear mother-in-law and the brooch is from the Art Nouveau era made of pewter and a large purple stone.

As a little DIY craft project I covered three tags with three different washi tapes. I covered one side of the tag with strips of tape and I carefully matched up the pattern so it looks like one whole piece - but it's also fun to be as creative as you like. You can do both sides with tape or just one like I did, it's also very easy to write your message with a pen on top of the tape as its made from paper. I used Jane Means narrow purple ribbon instead of string.

Thanks for the visit!

Till next time - soon!

xoxo Ingrid

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Floral Fusion - Easter

Last Monday I posted the last in my series of flower arranging videos. If you missed any you can see them here.

Today I am starting a new series called Floral Fusion.

I am starting off with featuring a tulip flower arrangement as well as a few other things as inspiration for Easter.

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While growing up in Sweden I always associated Easter with certain things. We always ate a lot of eggs and I don't mean the chocolate kind! I don't remember any Easter-egg hunts in the garden - it was probably too cold up there in the north.

Pussy willow branches were always brought into the house every year, put in a large vase and the branches would be decorated with brightly coloured chicken feathers and painted eggs.

As my mother got older she developed a fondness for china chickens of every size and shape and she would bring them out every Easter to decorate her hall table.  

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Tulips - what a fantastic flower to use at this time of year - it's available to most people, it comes in an array of colours and it's cheap to buy from for example the farmers' markets or the supermarket. 

You can also easily grow tulips yourself by planting the bulbs in the autumn - either straight in the ground or in pots.

To make an arrangement all you need to do is to remove any of the lower leaves that will end up below the water level and any that are damaged or bruised. Trim the ends at an angle and put them in a vase with plenty of water as tulips are thirsty flowers and remember - they continue to grow in the vase and that is why they tend to bend and flop over the sides of the vase. If you don't like that look just trim a bit extra off the ends to allow for the extra growth.
  

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The vase I have used is a "vintage" black Pueblo pottery vase from New Mexico. Many years ago over Easter I did a road-trip with my husband and his parents through New Mexico. I bought a piece of beautiful pottery from the Zuni Indian reservation. We visited the Ranchos de Taos, an adobe church that was built between 1772 and 1816. It was made famous by the photographer Ansel Adams and the painter Georgia O'Keeffe, who said that she thought that it was one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States by the early Spaniards. We also spent time in Santa Fe where I bought this piece of black pottery and you can see some more examples here of black Pueblo pottery.

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The two little white vintage eggcups are from Sweden and they have a very minimal but bright yellow stripe at the top. They have very graceful shape but are often too small for the eggs you can buy today.I love this kind of old-fashioned eggcups and they certainly remind me of my childhood in Sweden.     

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Pussy willow, or Salix as it's called in Latin, has a long been traditional to bring into the house and churches for decoration over the Easter holiday. I am not sure where the tradition of decorating with brightly coloured feathers comes from.

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The fabric that I have used as a base is from The Village Haberdashery in North West London and it's called Spots in Leaf from the Oh Deer! fabric collection designed by the Japanese Momo for Moda Fabrics. It has graphic off white dots on a bright green background. What an amazing fabric for spring!

As inspiration I have also used a catalogue from Waitrose an upmarket UK supermarket. This is their Spring Harvest 2013 catalogue - that you get for free when you order on-line. The three images inspired me and made me think of Easter in Sweden. 

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Here are some of my mother's china chickens that I have kept for sentimental reasons.
Fun and kitsch or just plain awful? I love to hear what you think of them.

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Here I have combined the purple tulips with some very short stems of pussy willow.

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Thanks for visiting and I love to here what you think of the chickens!

Till next time - soon!

xoxo Ingrid

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